Laserfiche WebLink
'~Ji <br />Elk River -~ <br />Municipal Utilities <br />13069 Orono Parkway • P.O. Box 430 <br />Elk River, MN 55330-0430 <br />October 1, 2007 <br />To: Elk River Municipal Utilities Commission <br />Jerry Takle <br />Jerry Gumphrey <br />Jim Tralle <br />From: Bryan Adams <br />Subject: Renewable Energy Project <br />~''>>one: 763.441.2020 <br />w Fax: 763.441.8099 <br />The Elk River Municipal Utilities is considering two renewable energy products. They are the <br />expansion of LFG to electric generation facility at the landfill and add generators to the Lake <br />Orono dam. Both projects require significant permitting efforts and costs. Attached is the <br />following information for your review. <br />1) Email dated September 4, 2007 addressing the SOZ emission from the Elk River Landfill. <br />As you recall, we are experiencing high maintenance costs on the existing engines at the <br />landfill because 4 to 6 wells have high sulfur content. One solution may be to plumb <br />these 4 to 6 wells directly to a new or existing flair and by-pass the engines. This may <br />cause some SOZ allowance issues. <br />2) Propose to secure the air permit to expand the existing LFG facility by another 8 engines. <br />The projected costs are in the $25,000 to $1,000.000 range. For a point of interest, a 4 <br />engine LFG facility will cost approximately $4,000,000 to construct without permitting <br />costs. <br />3) Lake Orono Dam Assessment Report dated September 2007. From this report the <br />permitting costs far exceed the costs to do the construction. <br />The reason for this memo is to make the point that although renewable energy is given high <br />priority, permitting these projects is still very difficult. There will be a lot of wind energy <br />installed because the ease of permitting. <br />